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First Views - March (Country Mouse)

Well, our central coast ridge top garden is in haphazard shape. I've been otherwise occupied, unfortunately, with a bit of time for some propagation efforts and some planting out. The bunch grasses I planted a week ago are mostly munched, but maybe they'll survive. Looking around the place on the first (or second) of the month makes me realize what a lot there is to do around here. Depending on my mood this is energizing or overwhelming!

With the recent rains things are greening up finally. Ribes are blooming or past blooming, and the little redbud is blossoming too, just to the left of the bench. One day it will amount to something, I know it.

Wildlife garden on the woodland side. Fuchsia flowered gooseberry not as lushly covered this year.

Madrone in the early sun

Some flowers in the front bed, hummingbird sage and seaside daisies

Ceanothus blooming - no blooms in the heuchera or iris beneath as yet. Western bleeding heart just beginning to poke greenery up.

Path is still damp from the welcome rains

"Duncan's path" with some greenery and weeds - no flowers yet.

Looking down to the lower chaparral across the road, and into the valley beyond, on the sunny south east side

Ah, flowers! in the pool garden. I don't want the calla lilies but they won't go away, and they are beautiful, though horridly invasive. Jerusalem sage on the left, verbena lilacena "de la mina" bottom center.

More greenery!

My pet blossoming Heuchera micrantha

The ceanothus "Dark Star" was covered in noisy bees today. Native and honeybees. The native ones were too skittish and I didn't get a pic of one. Bright yellow and black and fuzzy they were.

Ah the ceanothus! hard to capture it in a small photo.

The clarkia is sprouting sprouting sprouting - so much of it! I love the reddish stems.

Well, my computer ate quite a few more photos I had to show you. It's a mystery to me where they went. But these are enough to give you a flavor of the place I hope, with some general views around and about.

If you'd like to join in Town Mouse's First Views meme, in which we step back and take a look at our garden views on or around the first of the month, pop on over to her March first views post and link your first views so we can enjoy what's going on around your place too.

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Comments

Anonymous said…

Thanks for participating! Well, the ceanothus are clearly stars of the show for you, while mine are only just thinking about some little buds.Interesting how different locations (and different spots in the garden) can give such different results.

Looks like Spring has come in your garden Mouse! Beautiful blues of the ceanothus are just starting I see in my garden and daffodils... Rain predicted for next week,...hopefully will get things growing more!

(Shocking, my typing is when I don't look up to see what I've written! Oops.)

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I posted about how I backed into this hugely fun project here. In this post, I'll provide what advice I gleaned from the web, and show how I extended the dry creek across our south garden, to drain down into the chaparral slope.

I'm not done yet, but it's amazing how much you can do in a short time. Friends gave me all the river rocks - Yesterday, local friends offered me 4 bags of small pebbles which really helps vary the look - a mixture of small and medium river rocks are really required.

So, to get back to the beginning of this project. After I put a short creek for drainage in the succulent bed that is next to the house, I decided to continue it, and break up the south garden layout a new way -- nibbling into Experimental Bed #1 on the left, and rerouting the cross-wise path towards the right.

I played around with the hose quite a bit - and when I was digging out I made more adjustments. I made the river widen on the outer curves of a meander.

Dec 30 2017 6:35 am SaturdayLife is like a leaking sieve, a fishing net with holes and, of course, a boat with growing leaks. Felt sad taking down that spicebush yesterday and still unsure whether such drastic action was warranted.

Sat and looked and poked and trimmed and then went aw F*** it.

Especially [felt ambivalent] since the shrub I was privileging over the spicebush is an ambiguous one, likely a seed of Dark Star ceanothus, that reverted to one or other, or "favored"--as in "he favors his mother's side"--one parent heritage over the other. Because of all its buds. Like being unable to not love the baby cuckoo. Ambiguous heritage. I felt damned if I did or didn't.

I've been busy starting seeds! October is a good time to start a lot of seeds, except for the winter dormant ones -- the ones you have to stick in the fridge three months to convince them winter is over! Those are better done in Feb-March. I'm so happy! Some are already germinating!

I'll write more informative posts about all the stuff I'm starting by and by. This is just a seed-fest!

With the exception of the pipe vine - all seeds are of local California natives that grow on our around our property on a ridge about 6 miles inland from Santa Cruz.

Check out seeds of Aristolochia californica, Dutchman's pipe vine, which I blogged about in my last post - bagging the seed pods worked out great!

Speaking of propagation, I wrote an article for the Sentinel about propagation, as in who propagates the plants for the sale, as publicity for the Santa Cruz County chapter of CNPS and the UC Santa Cruz arboretum fall plant sales, which were today!